The government in Egypt is “steering toward autocracy rather than democracy…. The Obama administration has been eager to show support for Egypt’s leadership, but it is long past time to be honest about its behavior.”

“Investors are piling into bets against the yen.” Based on data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), “wagers that the Japanese currency will slide against the U.S. dollar have surged to the highest amount this year and are within striking distance of levels not seen since 2007.” With the Fed poised to taper and the Bank of Japan set to maintain and possibly expand its already aggressive monetary easing program, some expect the exchange rate to move to 110 yen versus the dollar.

“It is truly disgraceful to ruin the holidays of so many retail workers by requiring them to deal with shoppers–especially cranky, crazed discount shoppers–on a day when they should be relaxing and enjoying football and a big meal.” Traditionally, U.S. consumers celebrate a relaxing Thanksgiving on Thursday, and shop like mad the next day when stores reopen on “Black Friday.” This year, however, many stores are opening on Thanksgiving. “The only way to stop the madness is to kill it off from the other end, and boycott any kind of shopping on Thanksgiving Day…. If no one buys, they won’t try this offensive stunt again next year.”

“After three decades of breakneck economic growth, China is cleaning up its act. Lately, Beijing has been rolling out a raft of environmental regulations, chief among them June’s announcement of ten measures to improve urban air quality, including a target to reduce emissions from highly polluting industries by 30 percent within four years.”

“The last-minute deal at the United Nations Climate Conference in Warsaw keeps hopes for a comprehensive successor agreement to the 1997 Kyoto protocol alive. But let us be clear: Much more decisive action will be needed if we are to stand any chance at fending off the dangers of climate change.”

“Critics of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, both in the U.S Congress and the Israeli government, need to answer a question: Is there a better alternative?” The Geneva deal is hardly perfect, but seen from another perspective it may provide the best opportunity. This “imperfect Iran deal may be U.S.’s least-bad option.”

Awareness has grown “that institutional investors who define their job as beating the peer group benchmark are being irresponsible.” With that realization, responsible investment has reached the first stage. Today, “the challenge for ESG 2.0 is to learn to manage the modern risks that are linked to long-horizon stewardship investing.”

Impatient with European dithering, “the Federal Reserve will soon publish rules governing the operations of big foreign banks that will, in effect, throw up a wall around America’s financial markets.” This is understandable, but likely to lead badly as the Europeans retaliate with their own restrictions, fragmenting the global banking system. Instead, “America should give global banking rules—and Europe’s dilatory regulators—one last chance.”

“From Europe, from Asia, from Latin America, they’re here to be the eyes of their nations, here from places like Serbia, Germany, Spain and Japan. Five decades have passed, but even beyond America, the Kennedy charisma still charms, the mystery still intrigues.” Over 900 members of the press from around the world requested credentials for the official 50th anniversary ceremony to be held in Dallas where JFK was fatally wounded.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe helped his plans to achieve economic revival “by abandoning Tokyo’s 2009 pledge to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020.” With the reduction in nuclear power, the old targets had been looking increasingly unattainable. “Japan is not going to become the Worst Polluter in the World as a result of this announcement. Instead, it will be a country that is striking a smarter balance between the uncertainty of global-warming predictions and current economic reality.”